The present invention relates generally to computer board and chip packaging, and more particularly to an integrated heat sink for use with components having different heights and in one embodiment electromagnetic interference (EMI) suppression features.
Ever increasing performance demands are being placed on computer circuits and other integrated circuits (ICs). ICs are being required to operate at continually increasing clock speeds. Component density demands are also increasing as electronic devices become more compact and are required to perform more functions in a shorter period of time. The increased densities and higher operating speeds also result in higher power consumption and the generation of heat within the components. The heat generated needs to be dissipated to maintain proper operating tolerances of the components and to preserve the longevity of the individual components. Heat sinks have been traditionally used for this purpose.
Typical heat sink designs have focused on single heat sources or single IC components. Accordingly, the features of a heat sink are designed to satisfy the thermal requirements of a specific single component and the heat sink has a structure to only contact that single component for the dissipation of heat. With increased performance requirements, the size of heat sinks are expected to increase to effectively dissipate the higher heat generated to maintain operating tolerances. Furthermore, with component densities increasing and the thermal design requirements of other core components in systems, such as computers and the like, going up, the size and number of heat sinks will need to increase. In contrast, consumers want products that are smaller, lighter in weight and more portable.
The tighter densities and higher clock speeds are also expected to present electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems where the operation of adjacent circuits can be adversely affected by spurious electromagnetic energy or signals transmitted from other proximally located circuits clocked at higher frequencies.
Accordingly, for the reason stated above, and for other reasons that will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need for an integrated, single heat sink that can provide heat dissipation from multiple components of varying heights and other dimensions and with varying thermal design requirements that is efficient and compact and that also provides suppression of electromagnetic interference for proper operation of circuits that would be adversely affected by electromagnetic interference generated by other proximally located circuits clocked at higher frequencies.